1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to topically applied medicinal compositions, and more particularly refers to such compositions having active topical medicinal ingredients, and additionally having LYCD in amounts sufficient to act with the other active ingredients to provide synergistic therapeutic results.
2. Description of the Prior Art
LYCD as utilized herein in the specification and claims is the acronym for Live Yeast Cell Derivative. The material is also known as Skin Respiratory Factor (SRF), Tissue Respiratory Factor (TRF), and Procytoxoid (PCO). The product, LYCD, is an alcoholic extract of viable Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The material is produced and marketed by MDH Laboratories, Inc., Cincinnati, Ohio 45210 as a standard article of commerce. Another producer of LYCD is Universal Foods Corporation, Fermentation Division, Milwaukee, Wis. 53202. LYCD is available for experimental use as a bulk drug assaying 5 units to 40 units/mg of respiratory activity. In topical medicinal preparations it is characterized and quantified in terms of Skin Respiratory Factor (SRF) units. A unit of activity is calculated as the amount of SRF which is required to increase the oxygen uptake of 1 mg of dry weight rat abdominal skin by 1 percent at the end of a 1 hour testing period in a Warburg apparatus.
LYCD is also available as LYCODERM.RTM. ointment containing 2,000 units Skin Respiratory Factor (SRF) per ounce, from Arel Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Cincinnati, Ohio. In the prior art the well know hemorrhoidal ointment, PREPARATION H.RTM., contains 2000 units of SRF (ca 1%) per ounce of ointment.
J. Z. Kaplan (Arch. Surge. 119(9) p. 1005-8 (1984) has reported that, in a double blind human skin graft study donor sites treated with LYCD ointment, statistically significant earlier angiogenesis and epitheliazation occurred as compared with donor sites in the same patients treated with ointment bases (without LYCD). This study confirmed earlier laboratory reports such as that of Wm. Goodson et. al. Journal of Surgical Research 21: 125-129 (1976) showing that LYCD is capable of stimulating wound oxygen consumption, epitheliazation, and collagen synthesis.
As reported in the Cincinnati Inquirer of Dec. 12, 1986, Ashlley Hunter Cosmetic Co. offers a facial cream containing LYCD to minimize wrinkles.
For milder forms of acne, which may be inflammatory, topical benzoyl peroxide (BP), an antibacterial and oxidizing agent, topical erythromycin (EM), clindamycin phosphate (CP), oral tetracyclines, or EM antibiotics are usually effective treatments, as disclosed in the prior art. (C. D. Bunker, Drugs Today, 24, 229 (1988).